News

Alameda: City Council to look at drowning death

By Peter HegartyOakland Tribune

Posted:
06/03/2011 03:33:36 PM PDT

Updated:
06/03/2011 08:11:36 PM PDT

ALAMEDA -- The City Council will review the circumstances surrounding the death of Raymond Zack, who waded into San Francisco Bay and intentionally drowned himself as police and firefighters watched from shore, when it meets Tuesday.

The decision to review what happened at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach on Memorial Day follows Mayor Marie Gilmore announcing that the city would conduct an investigation into the emergency response.

Meanwhile, an exact cause of death of the 52-year-old Zack has not been determined because results from a toxicology report are still pending, a spokesman for the Alameda County coroner's bureau said Friday. The results will take several weeks.

Zack waded into the water fully clothed about 11:30 a.m. and gradually walked farther and farther from shore, witnesses said.

Police and firefighters -- who were dispatched after a 911 caller reported that Zack was suicidal -- did not communicate with Zack and remained on the beach, even after he began floating face down, witnesses said.

Police said they did not enter the water because the Alameda resident was suicidal and possibly armed or dangerous. Firefighters said they did not go out because they are no longer certified in shore-based or surface-water rescue due to budget cuts.

A passer-by eventually pulled Zack's body to shore about an hour after he entered the water near Shoreline Drive and Willow Street. He was pronounced dead at Alameda Hospital.

Other items on the agenda include a public hearing on collecting delinquent business license taxes, collecting delinquent fines for property code violations and collecting delinquent bills for waste management accounts.